Decompression surgery

Decompression surgery

8 years ago I was diagnosed with an Arnold chiari malformation and syringmylia . I had cervical decompression surgery this did restore my spinal cord to near enough normal but my pain has got progressively worse ever since, ear pain, neuropathic shoulder, arm and wrist pain, loss of temperature sensation, and numb hands. Has anyone else had this surgery? What was the outcome? All doctors do is patch me up with pain relief and for 8 years now i have been on so much pain relief I rattle when I walk, it's becoming more and more difficult to maintain some sort or normal life, and I dread to think the detremental effect it's further adding to my health.

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  • I had decompression cervical surgery four years ago for stenosis. Actually I had three operations on my neck including a lamenectomy without which I would probably have become paralyzed as my walking gait was deteriorating but I have been left with severe neuropathic pains in my hands and have not found any drugs that give pain relief so I just stopped taking so called pain killers especially as they do internal damage over time.

    I'm afraid the nerve damage which was caused by the surgery is permanent.

    Sorry I can't offer any words of comfort. Vliving with constant pain is horrendous so you have my sympathy. Bon courage

  • Loss of temperature sensation sounds to me like you may have ended up with some degree of incomplete spinal cord injury, which wouldn't be particularly surprising with that surgery. It is a very difficult surgery to do without causing some other problems. You might want to join a forum like apparalyzed.com that has a lot of people with incomplete (as well as complete) spinal cord injuries. That forum has some wonderful advice and support . Check out the description of anterior cord syndrome here spinal-injury.net/incomplet...

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